Aircraft Auxillary Lighting

Auxillary lighting as presented here are lighting options that while not necessary for flight are either supplemental lighting or alerts for other systems. The first two items presented are back-up systems if a primary or aircraft battery/alternator problem should occur. The third items presented alert the pilot of a specific area or system of the aircraft that the pilot should be aware of thereby increasing situational awareness and safety.

Let us start with something super simple, a flashlight. Day or night you should keep a charged flashlight available. During the day you can use the flashlight for your preflight inspections. In a survival situation a flashlight is one handy little tool and the battery can even be used to start a fire to keep you warm or as a distress signal. They are also required when conducting night flying. This little item doesn't weigh much and take up a lot of space, they are not expensive, but it can be a major stress reliever.

The glow strips can be a very effective backup if a problem should occur to the instrument panel lighting and, as we seen them on the interior lighting page, they can be used as primary lighting for the panel as well.

Annunciators, master caution and warning lights can be installed to alert the pilot or crew of any type of situation. There can be annuniators for low fuel pressure or oil pressure to just about anything you can imagine. There are companies that can even make custom placards for your annunciators if you canot find what you need. The most common annunciators seen are normally for navigation purposes such as a waypoint annunciator.

Naturally the larger the panel space the more options you would have to install many forms of warning lights and such. You gyronauts with smaller panels or pods are not left out as a small bracket or suplementary panel can be fabricated to add any of these lights. Add what you think you need to your shopping list and then meet up at Avionics. I got some tips to help you out there.





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